Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. The first performance of the ballet The Nutcracker
Speaker 1: took place in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on December sixth, eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, in the old style calendar that Russia was
Speaker 1: still using at the time. That is December eighteenth on
Speaker 1: the Gregorian calendar, which is the calendar we used today.
Speaker 1: We are bringing our episode on the Nutcracker out us
Speaker 1: today's Saturday. Classic course, it's one hundred and thirty third
Speaker 1: birthday at least approximately if you sort of disregard the
Speaker 1: calendar math. This episode originally came out on December thirteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Please enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed
Speaker 1: in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 1: The Nutcracker. It has become such a huge tradition for
Speaker 1: so many people around Christmas. I know, for my own part,
Speaker 1: my mom and I went to the North Carolina School
Speaker 1: of the Arts production of The Nutcracker together for many,
Speaker 1: many years. We had a family friend a little older
Speaker 1: than me who went from being Clara as a child
Speaker 1: to being asked to come back and be the Sugarplum
Speaker 1: Ferry after she had gone on to continue her dance
Speaker 1: education in New York. For a whole lot of people,
Speaker 1: the Nutcracker is the first ballet they ever experience, or
Speaker 1: maybe the only ballet they ever experience, And it's by
Speaker 1: far the biggest show and the biggest source of ticket
Speaker 1: revenue for a lot of ballet companies. And even if
Speaker 1: you have never experienced this whole ballet, music from The
Speaker 1: Nutcracker has also become a huge part not just of
Speaker 1: the Christmas season, but also beyond it. Like I can
Speaker 1: even remember a commercial from the nineteen eighties that set
Speaker 1: a smurfberry crunch jingle to the march from Act one.
Speaker 1: I will maybe sing that in our behind the scenes, Okay,
Speaker 1: I will try to remember that. You just said that.
Speaker 1: It's a little odd when you think about it, that
Speaker 1: the Nutcracker ballet has become such a phenomenon, particularly in
Speaker 1: North America, but it's also spread to other places too,
Speaker 1: considering that it is a Russian adaptation of a German
Speaker 1: story that was never really a Christmas staple in its
Speaker 1: home country. So that is the story that we are
Speaker 1: going to tell on the show today. The ballet The
Speaker 1: Nutcracker is based on the eighteen sixteen story The Nutcracker
Speaker 1: and the Mouse King by Arned Theodore Amadeus Hoffman or
Speaker 1: Eta Hoffman. His name at birth was actually urned Theodore Viilhelm,
Speaker 1: but he changed Vilhelm to Amadeus out of admiration for
Speaker 1: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Hoffmann was born in seventeen seventy six
Speaker 1: in Koenigsburg, Prussia now Kaliningrad, Russia. Although he spent most
Speaker 1: of his adult life in what is now Germany, Kauffman
Speaker 1: wore a lot of hats. He trained as a lawyer
Speaker 1: and served as a law officer before turning his attention
Speaker 1: to music. He worked as a composer and a music critic.
Speaker 1: He was also an artist, a theater director, and a writer,
Speaker 1: and his written work included a lot of fairy tales,
Speaker 1: including works for children. His fiction tended to be pretty
Speaker 1: haunting and strange, with stories that carried a whole sense
Speaker 1: of ambiguity. They blurred the lines or toyed with the
Speaker 1: relationships between imagination and reality, and this included his work
Speaker 1: for young readers, even though a lot of children's literature
Speaker 1: at that point tended to focus more on more heavy
Speaker 1: handed didactic stories and morality tales. That wasn't the only
Speaker 1: stuff being published, but a lot of it was very,
Speaker 1: very moral. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is sometimes
Speaker 1: described as the first fantasy written specifically for children. The
Speaker 1: story contains fourteen short chapters, some of which just stop
Speaker 1: rather than reaching any sort of logical pause in the narrative.
Speaker 1: There is some speculation that it was broken up this
Speaker 1: way so that it can be read one chapter per night,
Speaker 1: starting on Christmas Eve as the story does, and ending
Speaker 1: with Epiphany on January sixth, so parts of the story
Speaker 1: will be familiar to anyone who has seen The Nutcracker Belly.
Speaker 1: The main character is a seven year old girl, although
Speaker 1: her name is Maurice Stalbaum, not Clara Silberhouse, as it
Speaker 1: is in a lot of productions of The Nutcracker. She
Speaker 1: has a younger brother, Fritz, and an older sister, Louise,
Speaker 1: although Louise does not play a big part in the story.
Speaker 1: Their godfather, Drosselmeyer, is both beloved and a little frightening.
Speaker 1: He is old and mysterious and wears an eye patch,
Speaker 1: and he arrives on Christmas Eve with gifts for the fan.
Speaker 1: One of those gifts is an ingenious clockwork palace, but
Speaker 1: the children, especially Fritz, are quickly bored of it. The
Speaker 1: clockwork figures just do the same thing over and over.
Speaker 1: Then Marie finds a nutcracker among the other Christmas gifts.
Speaker 1: Basic tools made to crack nuts have existed at least
Speaker 1: since the fourteenth century, but carved wooden nutcracker dolls, typically
Speaker 1: made to look like soldiers, started to become popular in
Speaker 1: seventeenth century Germany. In the story, the nutcracker is meant
Speaker 1: as a gift for everyone, but Marie is particularly taken
Speaker 1: with it and deeply upset when her brother breaks it
Speaker 1: by forcing it to crack a nut that is much
Speaker 1: too big. Marie tries to bind up the nutcracker's injury
Speaker 1: with a ribbon, and Drosselmeyer does a more thorough repair.
Speaker 1: Later on that night, Marie puts the nutcracker to bed,
Speaker 1: and that's where the name Clara comes in. Clara is
Speaker 1: Marie's new doll, and Marie commandeer's Clara's doll bed so
Speaker 1: that the nutcracker will have a comfortable place to recuperate.
Speaker 1: As she is checking on the nutcracker late at night,
Speaker 1: Marie sees the mouse King and his army preparing for
Speaker 1: a war against her brother's toy soldiers, who have all
Speaker 1: come alive. The doll Clara saves the Nutcracker when he
Speaker 1: tries to make a foolhardy leap from the top of
Speaker 1: a high shelf to join in the fray. Marie also
Speaker 1: sees Drosselmeyer on top of the Grandfather clock in place
Speaker 1: of the owl that is normally there, although he does
Speaker 1: not intervene in the fight with the mice. After hitting
Speaker 1: the mouse King with her shoe, Marie swoons and later
Speaker 1: wakes up in her own bed. So a lot of
Speaker 1: what we have just said follows a lot of the
Speaker 1: action of Act I in most productions of The Nutcracker,
Speaker 1: so if you've seen The Nutcrackers, probably pretty familiar. But
Speaker 1: then Hoffmann's story. Marie cuts her arm on a piece
Speaker 1: of broken glass during this battle, and when Drosselmeyer comes
Speaker 1: to visit her during her recovery, he tells her a story,
Speaker 1: one involving a royal clockmaker also named Strosslemyre, and this
Speaker 1: story within a story, clockmaker Drosslemyre served a king and
Speaker 1: queen who had a beautiful baby daughter Princess Pearlapat. The
Speaker 1: Queen was preparing fat to make sausages or puddings, which
Speaker 1: were the King's favorite dish, when Lady mouse Rink, who's
Speaker 1: basically the queen of the mice, asked her for some
Speaker 1: of it. The Queen obliged, but then Lady mouse Rank
Speaker 1: and her kin ate so much of the fat that
Speaker 1: there was not enough left for the King's puddings. The
Speaker 1: king was furious, and Drosselmeyer, the clockmaker, decided to use
Speaker 1: his ingenuity to build traps to get rid of all
Speaker 1: the mice. Lady mouse Rank, of course, did not appreciate
Speaker 1: that so many of her kin were killed in the
Speaker 1: royal family's new mouse traps, so she cursed Princess Perlipat
Speaker 1: with ugliness. After consulting with the royal astrologer, Drossalmeyer determined
Speaker 1: that Princess Pearl could only be cured with a supernaturally
Speaker 1: hard krakatuc nut cracked open and presented to her by
Speaker 1: a young man who had never been shaved and never
Speaker 1: worn boots. After years and years of searching, Drosselmeyer finally
Speaker 1: found a krakatuck nut in possession of his brother in
Speaker 1: Nuremberg and his brother's son, so his nephew turned out
Speaker 1: to have never been shaved and never worn boots. Uncle
Speaker 1: and nephew returned to the palace with the nut, where
Speaker 1: a long line of potential suitors lined up to try
Speaker 1: to bite it open. All of them failed until the
Speaker 1: younger Drosselmeyer that nephew, the last in line, succeeded, But
Speaker 1: the young Drosselmeier and Princess Perlipat did not live happily
Speaker 1: ever after. Just after breaking the curse on the princess,
Speaker 1: the clockmaker's nephew accidentally stepped on Lady Moushrink, killing her.
Speaker 1: With her dying breath. Lady Mousehrink cursed him, transforming him
Speaker 1: in to a nutcracker. Princess Pearlapat, horrified, banished the nutcracker
Speaker 1: and his uncle, the clockmaker. The Royal Astronomer, who was
Speaker 1: also exiled for his role in all of this, predicted
Speaker 1: that the Nutcracker's curse would be lifted only if someone
Speaker 1: fell in love with him. Of course, at this point, Marie,
Speaker 1: hearing this story, concludes that it is real that her
Speaker 1: beloved Nutcracker toy is really the transmogrified nephew of the
Speaker 1: Royal Clockmaker, and that royal clockmaker is none other than
Speaker 1: her godfather Drossalmyer. Marie demands to know why Drosselemire is
Speaker 1: not helping his nephew, after all, she saw him right
Speaker 1: there on the clock on the night that the Nutcracker
Speaker 1: fought the mouse King. Once Marie has deduced what's going on,
Speaker 1: the mouse King starts demanding tribute, eating his way through
Speaker 1: all her treats and toys. Then one day she notices
Speaker 1: that the Nutcracker has a spot of blood on his neck.
Speaker 1: As she's cleaning it off, he asks for a sword.
Speaker 1: She gives it to him, and he is finally victorious
Speaker 1: in his fight against the mouse King, cutting off the
Speaker 1: mouse king seven heads and presenting Marie with seven little crowns.
Speaker 1: The Nutcracker takes Marie to a magical kingdom with meadows
Speaker 1: made of candy, a lemonade river, and towns made of
Speaker 1: gingerbread and bonbonds. She soon learns that the Nutcracker is
Speaker 1: the Prince of Comfeturemborg, or the Kingdom of Sweets. Marie
Speaker 1: once again wakes up in her own bed, and when
Speaker 1: she tries to tell her family what has happened. They
Speaker 1: are dismissive, but soon her godfather, Drosselmeyer's young nephew arrives
Speaker 1: from Nuremberg. The nephew thanks Marie for saving him, and
Speaker 1: he proposes. A year and a day later, Marie and
Speaker 1: the younger Drosselmeyer Mary and from there reign as King
Speaker 1: and Queen of the Kingdom of Sweets. This whole story
Speaker 1: is twisting and layered. It folds back on itself at
Speaker 1: various points. Marie often tells her parents what she's experienced
Speaker 1: and seen, only for them to blame her fevered mind
Speaker 1: and order her to stop telling such wild tales. As
Speaker 1: her godfather Drosselmeyer tells her this story, he also suggests
Speaker 1: that it's real, but then when he talks to her parents,
Speaker 1: he dismisses what she's saying as fancy. As one example,
Speaker 1: he tells her parents that the mouse King's seven crowns
Speaker 1: are a gift that he gave her years before, certainly
Speaker 1: not something belonging to a seven headed mouse king. Gaslighting.
Speaker 1: The book's tone is fairly ominous, actually, and it draws
Speaker 1: heavily from German romanticism. The brothers grim and they're dark
Speaker 1: and sometimes gruesome. Collections of fairy tales date from around
Speaker 1: this same time. Past podcast subject Casper David Friedrich was
Speaker 1: another of Hoffman's contemporaries, and many of his landscapes have
Speaker 1: a similarly eerie and foreboding, although still very beautif full feel.
Speaker 1: But in eighteen forty four, more than twenty years after
Speaker 1: Eta Hoffman's death, past podcast subject Alexandra dum Peir adapted
Speaker 1: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and translated it into French.
Speaker 1: The resulting book had the same basic plot and the
Speaker 1: same sort of story within a story, but with a
Speaker 1: tone that was generally a lot lighter and more cheerful
Speaker 1: than the original. And it is this version that was
Speaker 1: adapted into a ballet, or at least part of it was.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk more about that after a sponsor break.
Speaker 1: Pyotr Ilyitchchaikovsky was born in Russia in eighteen forty and
Speaker 1: he started composing music by the age of four and
Speaker 1: taking piano lessons at five. But Russia didn't have a
Speaker 1: formal system of education for musicians and composers yet, so
Speaker 1: it did not occur to his parents at first that
Speaker 1: this could be a care for him, so they focused
Speaker 1: his education on the idea that he would become a
Speaker 1: civil servant that eventually changed, though. He became one of
Speaker 1: the first students at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory after it
Speaker 1: was established in eighteen sixty two, and he eventually became
Speaker 1: famous both within and outside of Russia, composing seven symphonies,
Speaker 1: eleven operas and various concertos, cantatas, quartets, choral works, and
Speaker 1: three ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.
Speaker 1: And The Nutcracker Ballet was part of a two part
Speaker 1: commission from Russia's Imperial Theaters in Saint Petersburg, the other
Speaker 1: part being a one act opera. The ballet was his
Speaker 1: second collaboration to include both Imperial Theaters director Ivan Vasevlovski
Speaker 1: and French choreographer Marius Petipa, chief choreographer of the Imperial Ballet.
Speaker 1: The three men had previously worked together on The Sleeping Beauty,
Speaker 1: with Zevlovski commissioning the work, writing the libretto and being
Speaker 1: heavily involved in the costume and set design, and Peteba
Speaker 1: choreographing the ballet and providing detailed instructions to Chukowski on
Speaker 1: the music. The Sleeping Beauty had been a success after
Speaker 1: opening at the Marinski Theater in Saint Petersburg in eighteen ninety,
Speaker 1: and Vesblovsky was hoping for something similar to happen with
Speaker 1: The Nutcracker. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King had become
Speaker 1: a well known and widely read children's story, and he
Speaker 1: chose Alexander Duma's adaptation of it as the ballet's starting point.
Speaker 1: Even though classical ballet does not typically include spoken language
Speaker 1: or narration, by the nineteenth century, the process of creating
Speaker 1: a ballet generally started still with a libretto, a written
Speaker 1: narrative laying out the story that the ballet would tell.
Speaker 1: The composer, choreographer, set designer, and costume designer. Basically everyone
Speaker 1: who worked on creating the ballet would rely on this
Speaker 1: libretto to translate the story for the stage. The Nutcracker's
Speaker 1: libretto is generally credited to both Zevalewski and Petipa, although
Speaker 1: it was not entirely clear who did what in preparing it.
Speaker 1: But the Nutcracker collaboration among these men did not seem
Speaker 1: to have gone as well as it did with The
Speaker 1: Sleeping Beauty. With both ballets, Petipa provided Chikovsky with detailed
Speaker 1: instructions about the type of music that was needed, as
Speaker 1: in the full ballet was broken down into its scenes
Speaker 1: and dances and variations, with Petipah giving very precise instructions
Speaker 1: about how many measures of what kind of music was
Speaker 1: needed for each of them. It reads almost like a
Speaker 1: shopping list. But in The Sleeping Beauty these notes and
Speaker 1: the libretto they had added up to a story that
Speaker 1: had deeper themes, which Daikovsky could explore through musical devices
Speaker 1: like lip botifs. These represented aspects of the story while
Speaker 1: also unifying the ballet. In addition to the story of
Speaker 1: Princess Aurora, The Sleeping Beauty also dealt with themes of
Speaker 1: good versus evil, and Tchaikowsky could just explore all of
Speaker 1: this and represent it through music. Meanwhile, the libretto for
Speaker 1: The Nutcracker had abandoned the deeper themes and ambiguities of
Speaker 1: Hoffmann's story. The entire middle portion of The Nutcracker and
Speaker 1: the Mouse King had been cut almost entirely, leaving only
Speaker 1: the Christmas party, Drosalmeyer bringing gifts, the battle between the
Speaker 1: Nutcracker and the Mouse King, and the voyage to the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of Sweets after a grand final walt The Nutcracker
Speaker 1: was to end with an apotheosis with a bee hive
Speaker 1: surrounded by bees. The main character, now named Clara, did
Speaker 1: not return home after her travels through the Kingdom of Sweets,
Speaker 1: so it really wasn't even clear what the point of
Speaker 1: it all was. On top of his creative dissatisfaction, Tchikowsky
Speaker 1: experienced depression and anxiety throughout his life, along with social
Speaker 1: pressures and taboos stemming from his attraction to other men
Speaker 1: at a time when homosexuality was both ill legal and
Speaker 1: deeply stigmatized, and all of this may have fed into
Speaker 1: his struggle to get started on The Nutcracker. In April
Speaker 1: of eighteen ninety one, he wrote to Zevlovsky about it, saying,
Speaker 1: quote here in Ruon, I had to call on extraordinary
Speaker 1: willpower to make an agonizing effort in order to work.
Speaker 1: As a result, what comes out is colorless, dry, hasty,
Speaker 1: and wretched. The awareness that things are not going well
Speaker 1: torments me and agonizes me to the point of sickness.
Speaker 1: A consuming depression constantly gnaws at my heart, and I
Speaker 1: have not for a long time felt as unhappy as now.
Speaker 1: The day after Tchikovsky wrote this letter, he learned by
Speaker 1: reading it in a newspaper that his sister Alexandra had died.
Speaker 1: He was, at that moment on the way to board
Speaker 1: a ship for a tour of the United States, where
Speaker 1: he would, among other things, conduct music he had composed
Speaker 1: at the grand open of Carnegie Hall. This would have
Speaker 1: been terrible in any circumstance, but this was particularly terrible timing.
Speaker 1: But Tchikowski did not cancel his tour or his appearances
Speaker 1: in the United States. Instead, it seems as though he
Speaker 1: took this transatlantic voyage as a time to contemplate and
Speaker 1: to refocus. Music. Historians and theorists have noted that The
Speaker 1: Nutcracker incorporates more borrowed folk melodies and existing musical themes
Speaker 1: than most of his other work does, kind of suggesting
Speaker 1: that once he did finally get under way, he still
Speaker 1: had trouble feeling creative. There's also some suggestion that the
Speaker 1: character of the Sugarplum Theory is meant to embody his
Speaker 1: late sister. He was known to the family as Sasha
Speaker 1: Dchaikowski may not have been the only person who was
Speaker 1: facing very real creative trouble with the Nutcracker. Although Marius
Speaker 1: Petipah had been the one to write Chaikovsky's instructions for
Speaker 1: the music and initial notations for the choreography, he did
Speaker 1: not choreograph most of the ballots. He became ill shortly
Speaker 1: after that work began, and he left most of it
Speaker 1: to his assistant Lev Ivanov. According to Petipa's memoirs, Ivanov
Speaker 1: did all the staging and choreographed all the dances. Pettipa
Speaker 1: was seventy three when this happened, but there is some
Speaker 1: speculation that he really wasn't all that sick and he
Speaker 1: just kind of didn't want to work on this nonsensical show.
Speaker 1: Ivanov worked from Petipa's notes, but he didn't always follow them.
Speaker 1: For example, in Act two, Petipah called for quote Treypak
Speaker 1: for the end of the dance turning on the floor.
Speaker 1: Trey Pak is a folk dance from Ukraine and Russia,
Speaker 1: but Ivanov took this piece in a totally different direction,
Speaker 1: using hoops and lead dancer Alexander Shuriev choreographed his part himself.
Speaker 1: This is why in some productions of The Nutcracker day
Speaker 1: Treypak is this intensely athletic dance full of leaping and squatting,
Speaker 1: and dancers that are dressed as like peasants or maybe
Speaker 1: cossacks will and others they are in candy stripes and
Speaker 1: dancing with hoops. If you've only seen the first version,
Speaker 1: the first time you've seen the second one, you might
Speaker 1: feel like it was a rip off. Yeah. Jakowski compiled
Speaker 1: a Nutcracker suite featuring selections from the ballet, which was
Speaker 1: first performed in March of eighteen ninety two, and the
Speaker 1: full ballet premiered at the Mariinski Theater in Saint Petersburg, Russia,
Speaker 1: on December eighteenth of that year or December sixth under
Speaker 1: the old style calendar. It followed Chaikovski's one act opera Yolanta,
Speaker 1: which had also been the other part of this commission.
Speaker 1: One of the criticisms of Daikowsky's work during his lifetime
Speaker 1: was that it was not Russian enough. But The Nutcracker
Speaker 1: includes several elements that are really hallmarks of this period
Speaker 1: of Russian theater and ballet. This is really considered to
Speaker 1: be Russian ballet's golden age. Czar Alexander the third was
Speaker 1: a patron of the arts in the theater and a
Speaker 1: lot of the work it was created during his reign
Speaker 1: involved dramatic sets and costumes and the sorts of spectacles
Speaker 1: that the czar generally enjoyed. Much of the second act
Speaker 1: of The Nutcracker is also essentially a court celebration, with
Speaker 1: Clara as a guest to the Kingdom of sweets being
Speaker 1: presented with a pageant of all of the Kingdom's best
Speaker 1: and brightest, and some of this court review highlights Russia
Speaker 1: in its presentation, especially the series of Spanish, Chinese, Arabian
Speaker 1: and Russian dances also known as Chocolate Tea Coffee Tripak.
Speaker 1: Especially in Petipa's original notations, Trippak was to be the showstopper,
Speaker 1: suggesting that Russia was the best among nations. These dances
Speaker 1: combine with others in Act two to suggest the idea
Speaker 1: of many nations living together harmoniously under the rule of
Speaker 1: one benevolent monarch, that is the Sugarplum Fairy, along with
Speaker 1: her prints. A twenty sixteen article in the journal Dance
Speaker 1: Research by Damien Maye also explores the idea that the
Speaker 1: use of French songs and costumes inspired by fashion of
Speaker 1: the French Revolutionary era allude to the alliance between France
Speaker 1: and Russia that developed in the eighteen nineties, and Tzar
Speaker 1: Alexander the third does seem to have liked this ballet.
Speaker 1: Djaikowsky wrote a letter to his brother saying that the
Speaker 1: Czar quote was delighted and sent for me to his
Speaker 1: box and said a whole lot of kind words. I
Speaker 1: love that, a whole lot of kind words. It's just
Speaker 1: a great turn of phrase. But as for everybody else,
Speaker 1: reviews a little bit mixed, and the bad reviews were
Speaker 1: often explicitly and pointedly bad. People pointed out the same
Speaker 1: aspects of the libretto that had caused Chaikowsky so much frustration,
Speaker 1: including the fact that Act one and Act two almost
Speaker 1: felt like two totally different ballets, neither of which made
Speaker 1: a whole lot of sense. Some critics insisted that Act
Speaker 1: one was barely a ballet at all. People mostly stood
Speaker 1: around and pantomimed the words of one critic quote. First
Speaker 1: of all, the Nutcracker can under no condition be called
Speaker 1: a ballet. It does not satisfy even one of the
Speaker 1: demands of a ballet. Ballet, as a basic genre of art,
Speaker 1: is mimed drama, and consequently must contain all the elements
Speaker 1: of norm drama. On the other hand, there must be
Speaker 1: a place in ballet for plastic attitudes and dances made
Speaker 1: up of the entire essence of classical choreography. There is
Speaker 1: nothing of this in The Nutcracker. There is not even
Speaker 1: a subject. And also the stage was full of children.
Speaker 1: At this point in Russian ballet history, younger ballet students
Speaker 1: did not usually share the stage with older teens and adults.
Speaker 1: Reviewers bemoaned the fact that this ballet seemed to have
Speaker 1: been made by children for children. To add to that,
Speaker 1: many of the boys in it were not dance students
Speaker 1: at all. They had been recruited from a military academy.
Speaker 1: The focus on children in the ballets first act also
Speaker 1: meant that the most riching balletic performances done by the
Speaker 1: company's most prominent dancers didn't happen until very late in
Speaker 1: the evening in act too, and because the Nutcracker followed
Speaker 1: this other one act opera, that meant that they got
Speaker 1: on stage very very late. People felt like they had
Speaker 1: watched a whole opera and then a bunch of kids
Speaker 1: running around for an hour before the real ballet even started.
Speaker 1: And then that ballet was over with no real resolution. Overall,
Speaker 1: though Tchaikowski's score was praised, although sometimes that praise was
Speaker 1: a little bit backhanded, as in quote in some it's
Speaker 1: a pity that so much good music is expended on
Speaker 1: such nonsense, so unworthy of attention, But the music in
Speaker 1: general is excellent. Dchaikowski clearly had huge trouble getting started
Speaker 1: and found the early work on the ballet incredibly difficult,
Speaker 1: but it does seem that he was pleased enough with
Speaker 1: the score once he was actually done with it. One
Speaker 1: thing to note here is that we don't actually have
Speaker 1: the choreography from the nutcra debut performances. Petipi's instructions to
Speaker 1: Chaikovsky have survived, along with his notes and the libretto,
Speaker 1: but the oldest surviving set of more complete, comprehensive notes
Speaker 1: was not written down until a few years later, so
Speaker 1: it's not really clear whether any of the criticisms of
Speaker 1: the dancing itself led the choreography to evolve over the
Speaker 1: Marinski Theaters eighteen ninety two to ninety three ballet season
Speaker 1: once that season was over, though it does not appear
Speaker 1: that major changes were made to the Nutcracker until after
Speaker 1: the Russian Revolution. While the ballet's reception was mixed to poor,
Speaker 1: its music became far more popular, particularly the Nutcracker Suite.
Speaker 1: Orchestras in Europe and North America started performing the Nutcracker
Speaker 1: Suite in the early to mid eighteen nineties, and it
Speaker 1: became widely recognizable on both sides of the Atlantic. It
Speaker 1: wasn't until decades later that the Nutcracker became a winter
Speaker 1: holiday tradition, though you will talk more about that. After
Speaker 1: a spomp break after the eighteen ninety two to eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety three ballet season, the Nutcracker only made spotty appearances
Speaker 1: on Russian stages for a while. Sometimes companies performed only
Speaker 1: the second act or a selection of highlights. The ballet
Speaker 1: was revived in nineteen oh nine, and in nineteen nineteen
Speaker 1: Alexander Gorsky staged a version that combined the character of
Speaker 1: Clara with the sugar Plum Ferry for the first time.
Speaker 1: Vasili Vainonen introduced new choreography in nineteen thirty four, also
Speaker 1: casting adult dancers and what had originally been children's rolls.
Speaker 1: But overall the Nutcrackers appearances on Russian and then Soviet
Speaker 1: stages it was pretty spotty. Although the narrative takes place
Speaker 1: at Christmas, it also was not a Christmas standard. Easter
Speaker 1: is really the more important and festive holiday in the
Speaker 1: Eastern Orthodox Church. The Soviet Union also banned Christmas celebrations
Speaker 1: in the late nineteen twenties, leading to the rise of
Speaker 1: New Years as a secular holiday. The Nutcracker was performed
Speaker 1: outside of Russia and the Soviet Union for the first
Speaker 1: time in nineteen thirty four. That was in London, based
Speaker 1: on choreographic notes by Nicholas Serjeyev, who had been the
Speaker 1: company manager of the Imperial Ballet in Saint Petersburg. When
Speaker 1: he left Russia in nineteen eighteen. He had taken the
Speaker 1: choreography for more than twenty ballets with him. They had
Speaker 1: been recorded using a dance notation method that had been
Speaker 1: developed by Vladimir Ivanovitch Stepanov. In nineteen forty, the ballet
Speaker 1: Rue de Monte Carlo presented selections from The Nutcracker while
Speaker 1: on tour in the US. Then Disney's Fantasia debut in
Speaker 1: theaters on November thirteenth of nineteen forty. This film was
Speaker 1: not a financial success, in part because World War II
Speaker 1: shut down movie theaters in Europe, but it is credited
Speaker 1: with popularizing classical music in the United States, including selections
Speaker 1: from the Nutcracker Suite. Some of the Nutcracker pieces in
Speaker 1: Fantasia include the Dance of the sugar Plump Fairy, during
Speaker 1: which fairies flitter about, opening flowers and sending dewdrops down spiderwebs.
Speaker 1: Mushrooms twirl around during the Chinese dance. There are long
Speaker 1: tailed fish that gracefully swim around in coffee, and thistles
Speaker 1: that very energetically dance during trepak. Although neither the fish
Speaker 1: nor the mushrooms are human, they both retain some of
Speaker 1: the exoticized stereotype depictions that are often part of the
Speaker 1: Nutcracker ballet. During the Chinese and Arabian dances, the mushrooms,
Speaker 1: for example, have slanted eyes and a posture that suggests
Speaker 1: they're wearing robes, and the fish's movement and sensual demeanor
Speaker 1: suggests a harem. Fantasia has a content warning when viewed
Speaker 1: on Disney Plus Today know voting that it quote includes
Speaker 1: negative depictions and or mistreatment of people or cultures, although
Speaker 1: that's usually interpreted as referencing centaurs who appear in the
Speaker 1: pastoral Symphony, some of which have been cut out of
Speaker 1: the current version of the film. When introducing the Nutcracker
Speaker 1: Sweet portion of Fantasia, narrator Deems Taylor explains that the
Speaker 1: Nutcracker Sweet is part of a ballet that wasn't much
Speaker 1: of a success and quote nobody performs it nowadays. That
Speaker 1: was more or less true in nineteen forty, but today
Speaker 1: that sentence is hilarious. Four years after Fantasia, the San
Speaker 1: Francisco Ballet staged the first US performance of the full
Speaker 1: Nutcracker Ballet. The Ballet's founder and choreographer William Christiansen's talked
Speaker 1: through ideas for it with choreographer George Balanschein and Alexandra
Speaker 1: Danilova of Ballet Russ. Christiansen had never actually seen the
Speaker 1: full Nutcracker Ballet and later that these conversations, and particularly
Speaker 1: Balanchine's insights, had a huge influence on the San Francisco production. Then,
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty four, The Nutcracker opened at the New
Speaker 1: York City Ballet with choreography by co founder George Balanchine,
Speaker 1: whose name has been anglicized from George Balanshivadza. He was
Speaker 1: born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in nineteen oh four, and
Speaker 1: he had studied at the Imperial School of Ballet and
Speaker 1: the Marionski Theater. He appeared in productions of The Nutcracker
Speaker 1: before the Russian Revolution, which means that he learned and
Speaker 1: observed choreography that had started with Petepah and Ivanov back
Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century. He also learned other versions by
Speaker 1: other choreographers before leaving Russia in nineteen twenty four. Lincoln
Speaker 1: Kirstein invited Ballanchin to the US in nineteen thirty three
Speaker 1: to establish the School of American Ballet and the American
Speaker 1: Ballet Company. Kirstein and Balanchin went on to establish the
Speaker 1: New York City Ballet in nineteen forty eight. In the
Speaker 1: New York City Ballets nineteen fifty four, Nutcracker passed podcast
Speaker 1: subject Maria Tallchief, danced the part of the Sugarplum Ferry.
Speaker 1: Tall Chief was a citizen of Osage Nation and is
Speaker 1: regarded as the first prima ballerina in the United States.
Speaker 1: In this version, the young protagonist's name is Marie rather
Speaker 1: than Clara and Marie. The Nutcracker prints and other roles
Speaker 1: in this first and were danced by almost forty children
Speaker 1: from the School of American Ballet. This production was also
Speaker 1: one in which Trey Pak features dancers dressed in candy
Speaker 1: stripes dancing with hoops. Although Balanchine's Nutcracker first opened on
Speaker 1: February second of nineteen fifty four, it quickly became the
Speaker 1: heart of a special holiday ballet season, and the New
Speaker 1: York City Ballet has performed it every year since then.
Speaker 1: A lot of what made The Nutcracker so reviled in
Speaker 1: Russia in eighteen ninety two had nearly the opposite effect
Speaker 1: in the United States in nineteen fifty four. It was
Speaker 1: still not a show that made a lot of sense
Speaker 1: from a plot standpoint, but it captured a sense of
Speaker 1: childlike holiday wonder. The audience response was less oh, what
Speaker 1: are these children doing here? This is ballet, and more, Oh,
Speaker 1: look at those kids, they're adorable. This is wholesome family entertainment.
Speaker 1: Even without a logical plot to follow, the Nutcrackers seemed
Speaker 1: to celebrate values like home and family and holiday cheer,
Speaker 1: and that was not an accident. Balanchine and the rest
Speaker 1: of the creative team at the New York City Ballet
Speaker 1: had understood that their company desperately needed something that could
Speaker 1: have mass appeal, and the Nutcracker wound up suiting that
Speaker 1: need extremely well. And even though this was happening during
Speaker 1: the Cold War, when the United States was deeply and
Speaker 1: increasingly distrustful of the Soviet Union, which makes it seem
Speaker 1: real weird that people would get so excited about a
Speaker 1: Russian ballet, ballet was actually something of an exception. One
Speaker 1: of the many, many ways that the US and the
Speaker 1: USSR maintained a rivalry and competed with each other during
Speaker 1: the Cold War was through dance and ballet, Specifically, an
Speaker 1: abridged version of the New York City Ballet's Nutcracker aired
Speaker 1: on CBS in nineteen fifty seven, and then a somewhat
Speaker 1: more complete version aired the following year in nineteen fifty eight,
Speaker 1: with Balanchine in the role of Drosselmeyer. In the nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight version, June Lockhart, who had recently replaced Chloris
Speaker 1: Leachman as Timmy's adoptive mother on the TV show Lassie,
Speaker 1: provides an opening introduction in which she says, quote, Christmas
Speaker 1: Day isn't Christmas without a real old fashioned story of
Speaker 1: magic and miracles. Two televised ballets two years in a
Speaker 1: row established the Nutcracker as an invented tradition that reminds
Speaker 1: me a little bit of the Yes Virginia story that
Speaker 1: had a similar trajectory. So Valentine's Nutcracker was huge for
Speaker 1: the New York City Ballet and for ballet as a whole.
Speaker 1: As its popularity spread, it became the production that ballet
Speaker 1: companies used to help fund the rest of the season,
Speaker 1: sometimes getting about half of the year's ticket revenue just
Speaker 1: from the Nutcracker. That, of course, is a blessing and
Speaker 1: a curse. One widely repeated quote that's often attributed to
Speaker 1: dance critic Richard Buckle is that each Christmas quote, we
Speaker 1: are all one nutcracker closer to death. For much of
Speaker 1: its history, before this point, ballet had typically been performed
Speaker 1: on grand stages and before royal courts, and while the
Speaker 1: Nutcracker is certainly still performed among elite dance companies on
Speaker 1: prestigious stages, it's also found a home in places like
Speaker 1: elementary schools and youth centers. It has spurred on the
Speaker 1: popularity of ballet as an art form. The popularity of
Speaker 1: the Nutcracker also goes beyond ballet. It's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why decorative nutcrackers ultimately spread beyond Germany, especially as
Speaker 1: holiday decorations. In nineteen sixty one, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy
Speaker 1: chose nutcracker ballet themed decorations for a Christmas tree in
Speaker 1: the Blue Room at the White House, and that established
Speaker 1: the tradition to have a themed Christmas tree at the
Speaker 1: presidential residence. Sadly, the people who were most involved in
Speaker 1: the original creation of the nutcracker did not live to
Speaker 1: see this success and influence. Lev Ivanov died in nineteen
Speaker 1: oh one at the age of sixty seven. Ivan Vezevlovski
Speaker 1: died in nineteen oh nine at the age of seventy four,
Speaker 1: and Marius Petipah died in nineteen ten. He was ninety
Speaker 1: two at that point. All three of them outlived Pyotr Ilietzchikovsky,
Speaker 1: who died on November sixth, eighteen ninety three, or October
Speaker 1: twenty fifth in the old style calendar. His cause of
Speaker 1: death at the time was reported as cholera, but there
Speaker 1: is also speculation that he took his own life, and
Speaker 1: that this may have been connected to a matter of
Speaker 1: honor related to his sexual orientation. He was only fifty
Speaker 1: three at the time, and the Nutcracker was his last ballet.
Speaker 1: One of the things that we've touched on a little
Speaker 1: bit is the parts of the Nutcracker often involve racist stereotypes,
Speaker 1: especially the national dances of Spanish or chocolate, Arabian or coffee,
Speaker 1: Chinese or tea, and Russian or Traypack. Traypack, of course,
Speaker 1: was meant to be a reflection of Russian ideals, including
Speaker 1: bravery and physical and military prowess, especially in its original
Speaker 1: conception as a folk dance. Although the music for the
Speaker 1: Arabian dance is adapted from a Georgian lullaby, it and
Speaker 1: the Spanish, Arabian and Chinese dances have historically all used
Speaker 1: musical elements and costumes and choreography to suggest some racial
Speaker 1: and ethnic stereotypes. How or whether ballet companies staging The
Speaker 1: Nutcracker have dealt with this in more recent years is
Speaker 1: really all over the place, from making zero changes to
Speaker 1: re envisioning those pieces in a completely different direction, to
Speaker 1: hiring dancers from places like China and the Middle East
Speaker 1: to re choreograph those pieces in a more authentic way.
Speaker 1: Has also proved itself to be almost infinitely adaptable. At
Speaker 1: this point, there are multiple film and TV versions, along
Speaker 1: with prequel sequels and reimaginings. Although many stage productions are
Speaker 1: based on Balanchine's choreography or on other choreography that has
Speaker 1: its roots in the work of Petebah and Ivanov, there
Speaker 1: are so many others who are going to list just
Speaker 1: a few examples. In the nineteen eighties, the Pacific Northwest
Speaker 1: Ballet and choreographer Kent Stoll wanted to return to the
Speaker 1: spirit of Eta Hoffman's original story. To that end, they
Speaker 1: brought in Maurice Sendak to design the sets and write
Speaker 1: the libretto for a new staging of The Nutcracker. This
Speaker 1: became the Pacific Northwest Ballet's version of The Nutcracker for
Speaker 1: about three decades, and it was released as a film
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty six. They also published a translation of
Speaker 1: Eta Hoffmann's story as a book that was translated by
Speaker 1: Ralph Mannheim and accompanied by Sendak's illustrations. A version called
Speaker 1: nut debuted in Brussels in nineteen ninety one, and it
Speaker 1: uses Dchaukowski's score and is based on the Eta Hoffman story,
Speaker 1: but it is a satiric comedy with choreography by Mark
Speaker 1: Morris and a production designed based on the work of
Speaker 1: illustrator and cartoonist Charles Burns. Harlem Nutcracker debuted in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six, choreographed by Donald Byrd and working off of
Speaker 1: Duke Ellington and Billy Streehorn's arrangement of the Nutcracker suite
Speaker 1: and in this ballet, Clara is a widowed grandmother facing
Speaker 1: her first Christmas without her late husband. Debbie Allen Dance
Speaker 1: Academy's Hot Chocolate Nutcracker incorporates all kinds of different music
Speaker 1: and dance styles, with the rats narrating the story. Parts
Speaker 1: of this are shown in the twenty twenty documentary Dance
Speaker 1: Dreams Hot Chocolate Nutcracker. And then there are also just
Speaker 1: smaller special touches that ballet companies around the world have
Speaker 1: used to ground their productions of the Nutcracker in a
Speaker 1: particular time and place, and that includes in its home
Speaker 1: of Russia, Moscow. Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker includes a giant
Speaker 1: Matrushka doll and Russian folk figures like dead Morotz and Snagrushka.
Speaker 1: This ballet's heroine is known as Masha, which is a
Speaker 1: Russian derivative of the name Marie own Nutcracker. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about some more Nutcracker stuff in the behind the scenes
Speaker 1: because it's so much I have experience as an audience
Speaker 1: member and you have experience as a dancer. Yep, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for joining us on this Saturday. If you'd
Speaker 1: like to send us a note, our email address is
Speaker 1: History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe
Speaker 1: to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.